2016 Intentions: Let’s Frizzle This

January 1, 2016

I love new starts and new beginnings and I LOVE symbolism. Go on, ask anyone who knows me. I love symbolic fresh starts and symbolic new chances. True there is no magic in the start of a new year but there is SYMBOLISM and MEANING and those are things that i’m about. Giving meaning and i’m about to give a lot of meaning to the start of this year.

I’ve already talked about how great this fall has been for me. I’ve made some decisions. I’ve realized a lot about myself. I’ve worked a lot on myself. I branched out. I made friends. Now i’m ready to capitalize on that moment and really go guns blazing into this new year. So here is the quick and dirty break down of my intentions for the new year!

I decided that this year I needed some words to guide myself a) because it’s fun and b) because i’m trying a new guided BIG PICTURE approach to my intentions. Last year was too focused, too small, and way too overwhelming. Like I said I need purpose and meaning and last year my goals were just utterly devoid of actual meaning. Like the most I got was some general sense of improvement. Improvement yes but how? Who would I be changing into? It didn’t hit me where I needed it to, it didn’t hit my core, it didn’t hit my heart. It just was some vague idea of being a better me. Which is great, but I needed more of a reason especially when I wasn’t really satisfied with just improving on the same old model. I was directionless at the beginning of last year and all I knew was I needed something more because 2014 was rough sometimes in the direction department, I mean aren’t we all in the early stages of our careers? In our early adulthoods? Shit is confusing y’all.

My main intention: Frizzle everything. Take chances, make mistakes, get messy! One of my main gripes with myself is that i’m constantly preaching growth mindset and constantly telling my kids you only learn if you make mistakes, heck I have this quote on the wall of my classroom, but I don’t live it. I don’t live that attitude. I’m afraid, i’m unsure, I worry about what others think of me. But one thing I noticed about myself, especially at the end of the year, not only did I realize I wasn’t living it, I started really believing it. I started practicing it, I jumped into this mindset and tried to practice it a bit more in my life. Honestly a huge part of that is just meeting like minded people. People who validate you. People who encourage you. I got those people in my life. I forged those relationships and it changed me finally. I realized that I really could try anything and yeah, I might fail, it might not work, but I have an actual support system now who knows what it’s like to chase after your values and your passions, no matter how weird those things are. So i’m frizzling the crap out of next year. I’m pushing myself to do, to act, to leap.

‘Big Picture’ Intentions: I don’t know if i’m still uncomfortable with the word goals or not. I think I can call them goals now, especially because I stopped believing a goal needs to be quantifiable and scary. Quantifiable things usually aren’t great goals for me because they seem arbitrary, especially when they’re not anchored to bigger picture goals.

Strength and balance: Focus on what I want and what I need and make it happen. Keep hustling but tend my personal garden. Balance is a big word for me this year. I’m finally getting the hang of wisely spending my energy, especially now that I’ve gotten a better handle on what drains my energy and what gives me energy. Diving into my introversion and my personality more and understanding what I need to do to get better based on who I am as a person (yes I am talking Myers Briggs here, i’m even talking Love Language. They’re helpful tools, come at me!). I like understanding myself not to make excuses for my tendencies, but to better understand and overcome them. I will only become stronger by dealing with myself and understanding what I need. I’m working on it.

Relationships: Understanding myself and managing my time appropriately only help me improve my relationships with other people. Not only do I want to continue strengthening my relationship with Mando (see my overly sentimental gush in the last post) but i’m also really reinvested in this whole idea of friendship and building community. Which sounds stupid, because who doesn’t want friends? But you know what, it’s been such a back burner given issue for me for so long and that hasn’t really worked out for me. Realizing that there are relationships in this world that I have with people that give me energy has been revelatory. I’m making sure that happens more this year. I’m also trying to be a better family member. I’m not always great at it. But with understanding myself more I feel like I can more honestly give of myself to my family. So here’s to hoping!

Business: Be a better teacher. Understand my role in the classroom and as a liminal state teacher (ooh I love liminality!). Improve my use of technology in the classroom in a helpful way that helps students build skills. Beef up my technical understanding of human nature help students understand themselves. Branching out from teacher stuff for a minute: ThriveBook is happening this year. I’m doing it. No excuses. There will be an academic calendar release next August and i’m holding myself to it. I’m going to have to work my butt off and i’m going to have to improve in so many areas but i’m going to do it. Not only that but i’m actively working on my blog presence, on my social media presence, and i’m branding! I’m gonna brand so hard y’all. And i’m probably going to talk to y’all a lot about that and the struggle of not giving into my tendency to create an image of who I am. Been there, done that, not cute.

Personal Growth: Most of the above goals already sound like personal growth, which is the point. I’m taking care of me. I’m hustling. I’m getting what I want and i’m not losing sight of who I am and what I need. Not only that but i’m just taking time to grow, personally, in my relationships, in my skills. I just want to learn and I want to grow. I want to thrive.

Quantifiable Intentions:

Now here is the list we’ve all been waiting for! I know you’re thinking “Yeah sure Meagan, purpose is all well and good but give me the checklist!” While I might not be a human being that is a checklist, I am a person with a check list. So here are some things that it would be cool if they happened this next year (and mostly are direct building blocks for the things above.

Blog! Build my blog, maybe get on a posting schedule! Keep up with my content!

Brand! Jess is going to help me with this and we’re going to be the best brand nerds ever.

It’s what two of my friends and I call our (mostly) weekly night out that we started during NaNoWriMo. It’s mostly an inside joke but heck yeah! Get some ladies together once a week and work collaboratively! Write some fiction, drabble, talk about books! It’s been super nice to just do creative work around other people, having a supportive environment has encouraged the heck out of me. Start it up and use that hashtag lol.

I am in love with this post. SO much of it is exactly my own goals for this year!! Even specifics (like business cards – that’s a big one for me)….I have so many plans for this year, which is slightly terrifying (that whole potential to fail hard thing) but as you said – learning via making mistakes is an essential part of living. Wishing you all the best for 2016 Meagan, and to both of us making this year great! Can’t wait to follow along with your journey!

And I can’t wait to follow along with yours! I feel like this year’s intentions have a lot to do with a significant mindset shift i’ve made recently and it’s so exciting for me. I’ll be a cheerleader for you for sure! Best wishes for 2016 😀